Car Tech Spotlight: 2015 Subaru Outback’s multi-touch navigation display

Screen uses smartphone-like swiping and other finger-based gesture controls.

By Douglas Newcomb 20 hours ago

Source: MSN Autos

If you’2015 Subaru Legacy multi-touch display.ve used a smartphone or tablet, you’ve probably also used multi-touch gesture controls to, say, decrease the scale of a navigation map by pinching the screen or moving the map by swiping it with a finger. It’s a quick, easy and intuitive interface, and one that’s increasingly coming to cars.

Cadillac was the first car brand to use multi-touch control with its CUE system in the XTS, and Tesla also included it as part of the huge in-dash display in the Model S. Now Subaru has added it to the all-new 2015 Legacy and Outback with the navigation option on its seven-inch display.

I tested the multi-touch interface in a 2015 Outback 2.5i Limited equipped with the "Moonroof Package + Keyless Access & Push-Button Start + Navigation System + EyeSight" (the actual name of the option) that costs $2,990. The package also includes a six-speaker audio system, the Starlink smartphone-based infotainment system, SiriusXM satellite radio, USB port/iPod control, and Bluetooth for phone and audio. Plus, it brings the full suite of EyeSight driver assistance systems: adaptive cruise control, pre-collision braking and lane-departure warning.

I also consider the multi-touchscreen a driver assist of sorts.

With traditional touchscreen-based navigation systems, plus and minus icons are used to scale the map view (and the Outback still has them). Or in cars without a touchscreen, the same task is accessed through “hard” keys or some type of controller. Either way, the driver usually has to look directly at the screen or controls.

But with the multi-touchscreen used in the 2015 Outback 2.5i Limited, drivers can just use their fingers almost anywhere on the screen to accomplish the same thing. Other touchscreens also let you move the map by dragging a finger along the surface, but it usually lags while the screen refreshes. In the Outback, the multi-touch interface was much more responsive, like a smartphone or tablet.

Another trick of the multi-touchscreen is the ability to rotate the map so it’s shown in any orientation a driver desires just with a twist of the fingers. (Check out how these features work in the video below.)

A few other multi-touch features mentioned in the owner’s manual — such as a single touch with one finger to change and select various settings and a double touch with one or two fingers to enlarge or reduce the scale of the map, respectively — didn’t work as smoothly or consistently. But I found that pinch-zooming and rotating the map with just a movement of the fingers greatly assists a driver by not having to look at the screen for as closely or for as long.